Space Engineers is a sandbox game about engineering, construction and maintenance of space works. Players build space ships and space stations of various sizes and utilization (civil and military), pilot ships and perform asteroid mining.

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Early Access Game

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Note: This Early Access game is not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you
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What the developers have to say:

“Space Engineers is an Early Access game, which means that it is still under development but already in a very playable state and contains a vast amount of new features that have been added since its first release (e.g. Multiplayer, Survival mode). The game is being improved on a regular basis through updates that add and polish features and content, optimizations and bug fixes.

We invite you to give us your feedback and suggestions to help us create the best game possible.

February 19

We added a new type of round armor block which will not merge with the grid around it, you can use it for more acute connections of rounded and normal armor blocks. Additionally, the LCD panel block is now available. It has the possibility to actually show text or texture on its own screen. It can also display custom textures created by the players.

“Space Engineers generates its own unique brand of fun, whether you're more interested in constructing things or blasting them to bits”
IGN

Steam Workshop

Share your creations with the Community (upload and download worlds)

About This Game

Space Engineers is a sandbox game about engineering, construction and maintenance of space works. Players build space ships and space stations of various sizes and utilization (civil and military), pilot ships and perform asteroid mining.

Space Engineers utilizes a realistic volumetric-based physics engine: all objects can be assembled, disassembled, damaged and destroyed. The game comes with two game modes: creative and survival.

Space Engineers is inspired by reality and by how things work. Think about modern-day NASA technology extrapolated 60 years into the future. Space Engineers strives to follow the laws of physics and doesn't use technologies that wouldn't be feasible in the near future.

Space Engineers concentrates on construction aspects, but can be played as a tactical shooter as well. We expect players to avoid engaging in direct man-to-man combat and instead use their creativity and engineering skills to build war machines and fortifications. Space Engineers shouldn’t be about troops; it should be about the machinery you build.

Scenarios - Easy Start 1 – start on an asteroid platform with one large ship and two small ships
- Easy Start 2 – start in a green asteroid station with several large and small ships (this is a large scene!)
- Lone Survivor – start on an abandoned asteroid platform with no ships
- Crashed Red Ship – your mother ship just crashed...
- Two Platforms – competitive two-team multi-player world
- Asteroids – start in a rescue ship with very limited resources
- Empty World – no asteroids, no ships; suitable for creative mode

Dedicated servers - allow players to connect to a third party host, rather than using a player-host, in a peer-to-peer set-up. The result is a faster connection and a more fluent multiplayer performance with less lag

Ships (small and large ships – build them, pilot them and crush them

Space stations

First-person & Third-person

Super-large worlds – the size of the world to 1,000,000,000 km in diameter (almost infinite)

Procedural asteroids - adds an infinite number of asteroids to the game world

Exploration - adds an infinite number of ships and stations to the game world; discover, explore, acquire and conquer!

Drilling / harvesting

Manual building in survival mode – use welder to assemble blocks from components; use grinder to disassemble and reuse components

Custom colors for blocks – Customize your creations by using any color you like

Cargo ships - auto-piloted vessels (miners, freighters and military) that carry ore, ingots, constructions components and other materials from sector to sector. They can be looted but beware, they often contain booby traps!

Conveyor, Collector, Connector (IMPORTANT: this is a first work-in-progress version and a realistic version will be added later) - Conveyors move items from inventory to inventory. Collectors can collect small objects (ore, ingots, components, tools) into inventory. Connectors can throw items from inventory to space (in future update could be used to connect two ships/stations and transfer items)

Artificial mass – can be used to add gravity-affected mass to ships, useful in machine ships or cars

Wheels - use them with rotors and artificial mass to build vehicles

Automated turrets – gatling, missile and interior. Turrets are used mostly as defense mechanism rather than shooting other players. They aim on decoys (automatically by default), meteorites, missiles or all moving objects (eg. small/large ships) - targeting can be changed in the control panel

Large weapons - missile launcher (for large ships)

Large and small ship grinder and welder – assemble and disassemble blocks faster and in larger amount

Batteries - enables players to store the energy generated by solar panels or reactors at an efficiency rate of 80%

Pistons - offers the option to build more advanced machinery

Factions - create and join factions, determine ownership of blocks and manage the relations between them (hostile/ally). NOTE: Factions are currently Work-in-Progress. There are still many things to be added (eg. chat and communication) and some bugs/issues are yet to be fixed.

Remote ship control – control ships without being inside the ship’s cockpit (drones)

Modding API - brings a lot of new possibilities to modders and allows them to alter the game by writing C# scripts which have access to in-game objects (WIP - more features will be added in the future)

Blueprints - save your ship or station on a blueprint and paste it into your game

How to Play

Performance Notes

Space Engineers is in development and undergoing frequent optimizations. The performance will get better.

The performance depends on the complexity of your world and the configuration of your computer. Simple worlds run smoothly even on low-end computers, but a more complex world with rich object interactions could overload even high-end computers.

Almost 300 hours. I feel like I need to make a recommendation now. I am not much into buiding games per say, but this game caught my eye almost a year ago. This game has an absurd amount of potential that I do not even know where to start. The developers have been extremely consistent with their updates by giving us an update EVERY thursday.

Whether it is a new feature or a fix of some of the old features Thursdays have been my favorite day of the week now because of this. They listen to the input of the community and try to implement what would be feasible in this type of game. Solar panels, batteries, passenger seats(I am sure I am missing a few others) all have been the requests from the community.

This game has very little amount of rules. Bob Ross would be proud "Go ahead its your world, Do what you want". If you do not want to build ships you can build something else with the large variety of blocks. If you want to build a sculpture go ahead. If you want to build a race track or a nice little condo by all means do it :).

There is a learning curve, but the biggest part of that curve is learning how each block functions. Once you have that down you will see the crazy potential this game has. This game feels more like therapy than a game. Well It has been for me. All I have left to say is I am very glad I got this game and it has me dreaming about what I am going to build next everyday.

PROs-Graphics are way more pleasant than Minecraft. We just got damage particle effects for many of the blocks.-The ability to explore huge expansive space. There are even community made abandoned ships out there.-Ablility to build what you want.-create your own scenarios per say.(with some verbal rules of course)-Ingame programming C# ( program when you want your lights to come on or create a virus to upload to an enemy ship)-Voxel drill through that ice cold rock and shape it the way you want it to be-Destructable ships and environment.-HUGE library of mods that grow day by day.-Share your ships on the steam workshop.-There is even a company that will create a physical model of your ship. Using 3D printing.-Creative mode(for those peaceful times when you just want to build or test out new ideas)-Survival mode(with your energy depleting will you be able to mine and build the ship you need to survive against the other players or the environment?)-UPDATE THURSDAYS

CONS(the hard part for me)-Still buggy at times-Not all the blocks are fully textured...yet.-You can walk around on a ship while it is moving, but right now it depends on the speed of the ship if you will glitch out or not.-Not fully optimized... yet-No A.I. ....yet

--Do not buy the game if-You expect to have HUGE action packed battles like the ones from Star Wars.-You get bored of building easily. Some have even referenced this game to LEGOs in space.-You want objectives and to be told what to do next(this is a sandbox game)-You expect the devs to create the game the way you want it instead of the developers creating the game their own way.

All in all. Every time I have gifted this game to a friend They have completely enjoyed it.

Space Engineers is a sandbox space building game based around building and destroying space ships of all sizes that is currently available on Steam Early Access. The game features endless maps which can be customised in many different ways in two different scenarios, creative and survival. Creative mode gives you unlimited numbers of blocks, infinite health and removes some gameplay aspects whereas in survival you have to mine to create your own materials, you can easily die and you have limited inventory space.

While this game is great to play with friends it can be a bit boring to play by yourself unless you're very creative so bear that in mind when you purchase it. Also, please note I am capable of commenting on the realism of the game's physics as I study physics and mechanics.

+The physics in motion are good and seem realistic to me+Graphics are okay, they aren't the best but they aren't the worst either+You have lots of info displayed about your character and your ship (if you are in one) such as mass, speed and fuel left+It's a lot of fun to fly around in smaller ships (better handling) and it's also fun when flying in larger ship to crash them in to each other+The building system is pretty simple and easy to use once you get the hang of it+The multiplayer is good and playing with friends is a blast, until that one friend we all have decides to crash his ship into yours after an hour of building it+Lots of hotkeys/controls including one which toggles the HUD, great for taking screenshots+Workshop intergration is good and there are a lot of very good mods available

-Momentum doesn't seem right at all, when two objects collide (no matter what the size) a few blocks will break off and some will be crushed/deformed but that's it, the object that crashes into the stationary object will sometimes rebound off of it or they will both remain stationary. From what I know presuming the velocities of the two objects do not cancel (which they cannot in this situation) either one object or both of them should carry on moving, the sum of the two secondary velocities should be the same as there is no friction to take into consideration and the secondary velocities should be in the same ratios as their mass is. (I hope all of this makes sense).-With all the controls (I think most keys are used) it is very difficult to get in to and learn and it's also hard to understand some of the different mechanics such as mining-The default skybox isn't particularly high quality-You can't pause even when playing offline-Character animations aren't great and don't look realistic in my opinion-The price seems a bit too high for what you get

Worth a mention:-The game has long loading times due to the size of the maps and how much stuff is in them-If you have a low end PC or Laptop it's unlikely you'll be able to run it, the game slows down a lot when a lot is going on

Verdict:7

This is a good physics based builder despite it's issues that is best enjoyed with a few friends, I'd suggest waiting for this to get a sale before buying.

Some people peak in high school while others hit their stride later in life. I peaked today (FEB/20/15) after building a fully functional, one-click, "no adjustments needed" blast door for my station hangar in Space Engineers. Life may be a downward spiral from here, but the level of excitement that my meager acomplishment has provided me with has surely secured my place is nerd-Valhalla.

First of all, I want to say that this is problably the best sandbox game I've ever played, the developers are geniuses. This game has everything and there is always new things to learn.

When I first bought this game, a few days back, I was hyped to finally play this game, since I had watched several gameplay videos, everyone of them made me more and more interested in playing this game. But when I first launched the game, I was really disappointed, but not in the game - in myself for being so bad at the game. I didn't understand anything, how to mine and how to craft? As usual I skipped the tutorial, and after finding out there was tutorials of the game in the first place, I watched them and slowly started to learn the basics of this game. The game became really fun and I've now played 6 hours in a few days - and there will be more, alot more.

This game do really have everything, you can build fast spaceships, or if you prefer, build space stations into master pieces. There is a creative mode and a survival mode, like in minecraft, the creative mode you have unlimited resources and you can just fly around and build whatever you want. The survival mode though, is really difficult, atleast to a noob like me, and I recommend you to learn the basics before playing the survival mode, otherwise you might get angry or bored. The survival mode, however is about survive (suprise, huh?) and you have to mine to get the iron before you can craft blocks to build with. Depending which difficulty you play on, there will be meteor attacks, which problably will destroy your station(s) and ship(s).

Like this isn't enough, the game do have an awesome multiplayer mode, were you can just open your offline world to either LAN and/or steam friends and/or to public. The multiplayer mode has great settings, were you can control what the players can do and cannot do. The abilty to mod this game is great, as far as I can tell, there is alot of mods and it's easy to make them and to install them, at the Space Engineers workshop (here at steam) you can download all the mods and worlds others have made, which makes the game even better.

Anyhow, this game becomes funnier the more you learn and the more you play, as you get better - the game becomes funnier. If you do not own this game, but love games involving building and surviving, you should definatly buy this game.

Its a really well made realistic space survival sim that involves mining and assembling. Its a good thing you dont have to eat aswell! its a top space sim for online gaming and 1 of the best MP space creative/survival sims I've ever played, though it could use a planet or two with dust rings you can fly though or something, something more than just asteriods/meteorites something to explore, discover, achieve some sort of a goal? in game and not as a mod would be nice.

If you love to use your Imagination for Creation and have a love of Space this game is worth a crack.

ps thankyou for the the tutorials redirection at the start of new games many ppl I play with just keep'd getting confused by the complex appearance of the game and this has hlp'd heaps THX's and keep up the good work, its very hard to find a problem with this sandbox game as it is a very unique concept and very well done already but its still a beta, nice work so far I can't wait to see whats coming next.

eghh umm well theres alot to this game get a team mine for resources build a ship build a space station build bigger ship forget to add side thrusters crash a 4 man teams 3 hour masterpiece in an asteroid cry a little pull out your repair tool start over try not to take your sorrows out on the bottle

i left my ship without damperners on, the ship flew out. I chased after and eventually got in front of it so i used my body to try and stop....... The ♥♥♥♥ing ♥♥♥♥ blew up. 10/nasa would chase after ♥♥♥♥ing ship again

I have had this game for quite a while now and have been impressed with the steady development. Updates are frequent and follow a content-bug fix-polish cycle. New content seems to be prioritised based on what is most missing from the game after listening to player feedback. The developers clearly have their own vision of the game they are making, but they listen to the audience they have attracted when deciding how best to go about integrating the many necessary elements.

Early Access games have something of a bad reputation, but the team behind Space Engineers have behaved with integrity thus far and I definitely feel I have gotten my money's worth of fun already.

The game is still clearly not a finished, bug-free, polished product. However, barring financial considerations, I have no reason to doubt that it will be in time.

I want that to happen, so I recommend this game so more people may buy it and the makers are less likely to run out of money and more likely to get a decent reward for behaving admirably.

What is the game like itself? Sort of advanced giant virtual lego in space I suppose.

InstallObserve how far out of depth you are in this gameCheck WorkshopRealize how grossly inadequate you compare to other engineersConclude that you will never be able to become a real space engineerUninstall

This is a game that was made for people just like me. It looks like Minecraft in space, but it's more than that. It gives you the tools to solve problems, and the fulfillment you get after coming up with your own solution is a feeling sorely lacking in other sandbox games.

The survival mode in this game gives you a lot of content. I've been playing it for more than forty hours and I haven't even managed to set up a decent mining operation. You can also hijack other ships and take them apart to build new ones. You can stop them in a craft that you made or even just in your spacesuit (if you know what you're doing) - they're all coasting on autopilot and with automated weaponry that makes approaches tricky. The fun is in the trial and error, and figuring out the best way to do a seemingly simple task.

Is your mining drill inefficient? Build a mining ship. Is the hand welder too slow for you? Make a welder-equipped craft. Do you need to strip and salvage a giant capital ship you just captured? Maybe a corvette with six grinders is what you need. Creativity and resourcefulness is rewarded.

The creative mode is also great for shooting things with other people and making fantastic designs of ships on your own. There are ways to save schematics or blueprints of your designed ships so that you can build and use them in survival mode. The devs are also great in that they update really often, and for an alpha version (I rarely buy games on Early Access) my money has already been well spent. BUY IT AND PLAY WITH ME AND YOUR OTHER FRIENDS!

Highly recommend. It has creative, it has survival, it has simple things you can do, it has complex things you can do, it has single player, it has multiplayer, it has pvp, it has exploration, and it has weekly thursday updates.

A very fun and interesting game to play with friends or just by yourself. I would recommend starting things easy before tackling the major parts of the game like survival mode and sceanrios that pit you by yourself or just limited resources.

The mods are quite interesting, the mod community for this game is creative with their mods and hopefully that will contiue to last.

There are a only couple issues with this game but the primary concern is the 'tutorial' there isn't any, just a 'guide' of sorts in order for the player to help them guide their way through that particular scenario. Trouble is what supplies go with which? what buttons do i have to press? It's these kind of things that makes tutorials in games like this worth it.

Should you get it? yes you should but prepare to really lose track of time as this game will take a long time for you to make any big progress, this isn't a fast pacing space epic, or some action adventure game. This game is in a field of it's own

I really didnt think I would enjoy it but only a few hours in and I went and bought the full version this is a fantastic game.Obviously let me state that this game WILL NOT be for everyone if you hate minecraft good chance you will not enjoy this either it is a lot of mining asteroids refining and building stuff. But that is the great part building ship designs how you want.

Starting with a tiny ship and working your way up to platforms and then a full space station for you to haul all your minerals back too for refining. I think if you enjoy the idea of flying around building ships and stations then give this game a go maybe wait for another free weekend or check out some youtube lets plays to get a feel for it.

So I picked up S.E. after it being described to me as Minecraft in space, and seeing as I liked minecraft, and space, I figured this would be a hit with me.

Yeah buddy it is.

One day I can decide to build a trading station in the middle of nowhere purely for the fun of it. And the next day, I'm building a fleet to pass by and destroy said station. I can make my own goals, my limits are really only what I can think up, and whatever the game lacks atm I can probably find a mod for.

Sure, when I started playing and atm it's still early access, but it's regularly updated with a great dev team and an impressive modding community as well. Think you've got the hang of everything available? Subscribe to some of the mod packs available through the workshop, that'll keep you busy for months all on it's own.

If you've ever played or watched anything sci-fi related and thought it'd be cool to build that. Get this. Why wouldn't you want to build a Star Destroyer or the USG Ishimura? Just sayin.